post number 118

I broke the short belt on the lathe this morning while machining my eccentric. dangit!


Here are the clutch parts that my friend Delmar sent down.



I have to have the splines cut out of the final drive sprocket with an edm still




Here is the complete unit. I still have a little bit of work to do and am waiting on spring plates, but should have them in next week. This is pretty exciting stuff. I went for a three day vacation to anamosa iowa this weekend and posted a bunch of pics on my other site, go check them out at www.oldbikesinsd.blogspot.com My daddy made a lot of progress on my motor while I was gone and everything looks good. I will post more pics this week.

post number 117

Here are the clutch springs that I got from Fox valley spring company earlier this week. They are really nice and well made


The three shiny covers are pieces that My friend Paul made for me in missouri. The original is on the right. They are really nice copies! thanks paul



HEre are the clutch plates. Steve Huntzinger set me up with a good contact for bonding kevlar to the plates and I just got them in the mail today. The coating is on both sides of the male notched plate and adds .034 thickness to each plate which means that you end up running three plates of each style rather than four so that your clutch pack is the same thickness. The added benefit of having actual lining compared to just steel on steel is totally worth it.




My dad cut all of my valves yesterday. Here is a good pic of one of the exhaust valves where you can see the lapped in area. It is about two thirds up on the seating face. This is how we set up knucklehead seats and they work good, so it would only make sense that it would work on a spacke engine. The exhaust stem to guide clearance is .oo6 and the intakes are set up at .004

post number 116

Well I got my cut out for my front fork spring laid out. This is uncharted territory for me, but I guess the whole project is to ha ha. Wish me luck!


Here is a pic of my axle block welded to the rocker. This worked out well. One block stuck out a little farther on one side compared to the other. I have the other rocker finish ground and it looks bitchin.



After the rockers were welded up I was able to move onto finishing the struts. The first step was to weld the strut to the bottom piece.




Then I welded the cone on in two spots.





Then finish ground and sanded it. It looks really nice. I am happy with how these monster rockers turned out. I am going to go cut up my front fender wish me luck!

Post number 115

Safet is no joke!

post number 114

Here is a pic of my daddy silver soldering my handlebars into their respective castings. I plug welded them in two spots for extra strength!


After the bars were brazed together, I welded some cable blocks onto them, then I was able to get the proper angle on the little cable x piece. By the way those are the two pieces that were in a post a while back.



HEre is one of the cable blocks on the frame. Pretty neat stuff.




I recieved my cannonball shoes in the mail yesterday. They are very uncomfortable, so I have been wearing them around the shop in hopes of getting used to them.

post number 113

Check out this little bracket that I made for my muffler. It is not stock, but adds a ton of rigidity to the whole exhaust system. Just by adding this little guy, I am able to pick the bike up by the header pipes!


Here is a pic of machining the center stand casting. One side was very easy to clamp onto, the other side proved to be a challenge.



Since I pulled molds off of a really rusty part, one of the edges of the actual casting was kind of rounded. This caused problems with clamping onto it in the mill vice. I tried to run a bead of weld on the part, then re machine it square in hopes of gaining the thirty or forty thousandths needed to clamp onto, but it did not work and the part still slipped out of the vice when I tried to tighten it up.




So I ended up doing a little bit of outside of the box thinking and welded a steel block to the casting. This worked well, but ended up being a little more work.





Here is a raw casting next to a finished one. This is a very tedious process, but well worth the end result.

post number 112

HEre is a pic of the tube welded in place.


I used a knucklehead push rod for this application. It required a really small hole. The wall thickness on this sleeve doesnt need to be very thick, all it is doing is preventing the tube from being crushed. I am back out to the shop. wish me luck
!

post number 111

This morning Ray helped me tack the skirt onto my sears outer primary. I have been putting this job off for months because it intimidated me. I am very happy with how it worked out and I am glad that I took the time to come up with a good game plan on how to do it. I have a total of 18 or 20 hours in this cover and I still have to trim it and make two mounting brackets, as well as metal finish it! What a bunch of work, but every step is one step closer to the finished product!


Pretty good stuff. Everything in this picture is calculated and precise!



Does anybody know what these two little guys are for? The first correct answer gets a cookie!




I usually only post pictures of successful parts, most of the time though, I have to scrap a couple pieces before I come up with something use able, here are a couple of junk clutch lever tension straps. I can't believe how much I struggled on this dinky little part.





Here is the finished piece installed on the lever. You can also see the top motor mounts that I made yesterday as well. I still have to silver solder the knob onto the clutch lever

post number 110

Here is the rear motor mount of my new motor. I think that it is a thirteen. I have seen other thirteens with the star on them. This motor also lacks the extra oil inlet beneath the rear cylinder which I have been told came out in fourteen. Maybe some of you guys out there can shed some light on the situation. Please fill me in.


Here is the motor in all its glory. It came with a mag that is off of it in this pic. The timing plug has never been broken which is amazing



Here are the little spigots that I made for my header pipes




Here is a pic of my dad silver soldering them in.





And mounted on the bike. Everything seems to be coming along quite well. I will have a batch of plating to send off by the end of the week!

post number 109

Here is a neat pic of machining the decompression/mag advance casting that goes on the frame. The seat t casting was cast in a similar fashion, but the tube that it is on is curved, so I had to drill and bore it out on the mill. This piece went a lot easier though since the tube it was on was straight.


Here is the tubing that I used for my bottom tank arrows.



Here is the back one prior to welding.




Ta Da! all finished up.





I also finished up my clutch lever stud and cap. This is a clean deal! I also roughed in my exhaust, finish ground my seat post and got a spare motor from ohio. Pics will be posted shortly

Post number 108

I have made a lot of progress over the last few days. I got my bottom tube welded into my sears frame. I have run into some issues with things fitting because of raking my neck three degrees. One of them was gas tank fitment. My tank was lowered a little bit on my bike and I had to make clearance for the rocker covers. Here is the relief for the front cylinder. It is mostly done in this pic.


HEre it is all welded up.



After a bit of grinding. This is going to look so good all painted up.




I am working away on fitting sheet metal, exhaust and bits and pieces. the weekend is going really well and I will be a lot closer to my goals by the end of tomorrow. Have a nice day everybody!

post number 107

Well I got my first frame yesterday. This thing is really nice. It is the prototype and there are a few things that will be tweaked on the others, but over all it is really nice and a great piece of craftsmanship. Good job Chad!


OOLALALA This is going to be so sweet. The pieces will fall into place. Don't blink or you will miss something haha

post number 106 frame parts

HEre are all of the parts that make up my frame, I built a 1.5 inch longer fork for my race bike with the idea that it would end up being raked out three degrees in order to have the right rake and trail. All of this was because I wanted a longer wheel base so that my bike was more stable during braking and riding. I know what a difference there is between a 39 and a 41 knucklehead, it only makes sense that the same improvement would cary over to the sears project. I will know in a month!


HEre is the frame coming together. Pretty neat stuff. I got a little overzealous and made the tank with out the frame, so consequently I asked to leave the bottom tube out so that I can fit the pieces together.



Notice that all of the seams are tig welded this is a departure from stock that will only be on my race frame. the next batch that we are making will be plug welded and sweat brazed/silver soldered and be indistinguishable from stock. This is a great picture! Thanks Chad!




It is kind of difficult to see the difference in the neck in this picture, but it is there. Cant wait to get a roller! Have a great day everybody!

Garbage wagon 53 transformation and new repro parts

Things have been insanely busy lately and i have not had much time to update this site. I finished up a 46 and tarded up the 53, I am getting back on a 36 next and should have it done by the middle of next week. Lots of exciting stuff going on. Here is a box of rear header pipes that we bought from our friend Phil Santora in Ohio. He made them up and sold a few, then contacted us about buying him out. They are awesome! These are the nicest pipes that I have ever seen reproduced. They have beautiful graceful curves just like og ones. Shoot me an email if you would like some.


I also got some replacement tabs for knuckleheads from my foundry, these turned out really well and I have already shipped out half of them. They are 1020 steel and weld to the broken og heads really well.



I started tarding up the 53 after work today. Check out the 39 seat jewel in the 6 inch aircleaner! It is bitchin. Also not the repro site gauge in the oil tank and the rails on the fender! My friend Gina and I are taking this bike on a camping trip/ wedding/ break in trip this weekend. Just wait till i post a pic of the buddy seat rail-- it is killer!!!!! Hopefully the garbage wagon holds together lol.




I made up some candy canes for the top of the fender. It only took a half hour. I am going to make a different pair this winter and have them chromed, these ones are stainless. I also mounted a chevron and a gaudy front bumper. This bike is over the top!





Panheads are for decking out! I secretly think that my dad is trying to compete with my uncle Ricky's 55 panhead lol. My dad still has a lot of catching up to do.